a) In the context of ecological stability, define in your own words what the con

Question

a) In the context of ecological stability, define in your own words what the concepts of resistance and resilience mean.

b) Give a brief description of a field study that showed that less diverse communities tended to be less resilient.

c) Explain why the historical rate of species extinction over the last 500 years (approx. 1.6 species per year) cannot be meaningfully/directly compared with the average rate of extinction inferred from the fossil record (approx. 1 species per year).

d) Provide the name of one continental country and one island region that feature on the list of top regions for the number of extinctions.

Explanation / Answer

a) A community or population will typically change in the face of an unusual change in ecological conditions. The concept of resistance is associated with the initial change that the community or population suffers initially (i.e. the lower the amount of change, the higher the resistance), whereas the concept of resilience is associated with the speed of recovery following the initial period of change (i.e. the faster the speed of recovery, the higher the resilience).

b) Three field studies have been described in the lecture, two by McNaughton et al. (Gnu exclusion in the Serengeti, response to drought of Yellowstone grasslands) and one by Tilman et al. (response to drought in Minnesota grassland plots). Although all show that resistance is higher in more diverse communities, only Tilman

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